Catalog table

The catalog table is the central location for metadata of Kudu. It stores information about tables and tablets. The catalog table is accessible to clients through the master, using the client API. The catalog table cannot be read or written directly. Instead, it is accessible only through metadata operations exposed in the client API.

The catalog table stores two categories of metadata:

Table 1. Contents of the catalog table
Content Description
Tables Table schemas, locations, and states
Tablets The list of existing tablets, which tablet servers have replicas of each tablet, the tablet's current state, and start and end keys.